When Love is Lost
by Clive McVahn
Summary: Previously a battle simply to overcome a corrupt govenment, the upcoming war becomes a personal matter when a Priestess loses the one she loves in battle.


Disclamer: All , jobs, skills, and characters are property of Squaresoft and company. I did not create the characters, I am simply borrowing them for a while.   
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**When Love is Lost**

  


_Chapter 1_

  
Twilight. As the evening breeze began to cut its way through his leather armor like a well polished sword, Ramza Beoulve prepared to defend himself from the Goblin's brutal flurry of punches. After sucessfully shielding himself, Ramza made his own charge at the beast. He pointed his long sword at the beast's throat and charged forward, screaming a battle cry.The sword just missed the its target, but managed to graze the beast's neck and sholdier. The Goblin made a surprised cry and fell back, red blood spewing from the small hole in its jugular. 

Behind Ramza, Davian the Monk was trying desperetly to fend off two enimies, a Black Goblin and a Yellow Chocobo, by himself. After barely dodging the Goblin's attack, Davian closed his eyes and said quickly, "Burning anger rising....Burst!" With those words, Davian drew back his fist and shouted, "Wave Fist!" He then punched the air in front of him and sent a white-hot shred of energy towards the creature. The ball hit the Goblin square in the chest, sending it flying back several feet. It landed in the grass, its chest reduced to little more than a sizzling mound of carbon. 

The Chocobo watched all this with wide eyes and made an attempt to escape, but the small matter of having a wooden shaft suddenly embedded in its neck stopped it from making any further escape attempts. It fell to the ground with a gurgled "Wark!" and lay still, forming a small puddle of blood. 

Davian turned around to see who had fired the shot and saw Sara the Archer quickly loading a fresh quill into her crossbow. Davian made a quick wave of thanks, and turned to defend himself from a new threat. A Bomb was quickly making its way towards him. Unprepaired for the attack, Davian made little attempt to dodge the creature. The Bomb opened its mouth and bit down on Davian's sholdier, the pain made all the worse due to the creature's flaming skin. 

"Damnit!" Davian shouted as he counter-attacked, sending the creature bobbing back with his powerful punch. He felt a slight chill surge through the air as he fell to his knees. He rolled to the side, knowing exactly what it was. As he looked up, he saw the chilly blades of an Ice spell fall on the beast, causing it to shrink back in pain. Davian looked back at the source of the spell and saw Rena the Priest dusting off her spotless white robes. Davian nodded his thanks and then flinched from the pain caused by the wound in his sholdier. Rena looked at him worriedly and then began to chant a low-level Cure spell. 

Ramza was finishing off the Black Goblin he wounded near the beginning of the battle, and he was starting to feel a little tired. The Goblin made a wild charge at Ramza tring to at least to wound him. He tried to raise his shield in time to deflect the blow, but due to his fatigue, he wasn't quite fast enough, and was knocked to the ground. 

The Goblin shouted in triumph and prepaired to crush Ramza's skull. Ramza closed his eyes and waited for the final blow, but felt a light thud and, a second later, warm liquid leaking into his armor. At first, he thought it was his own blood, but after a second he relized he didn't feel any pain. He opened one eye slowly and saw Davian, Sara, and Rena smiling down at him. He aslo saw that the Goblin had the shaft of an arrow sticking out of its back. Ramza slowly pushed the lifeless body of the Goblin off of him and leaned up. He looked around at all the carnage that surounded him and felt a bit of pity for the creatures who had been unfourtunate enough to meet them here like this. "Had we met under different cercumstances, we may have been allies..." he thought. "May you rest in peace." He looked up at his comrades. "I guess we won, huh?" he said with a smile. 

"You're damn right we won," Davian laughed. "Too bad there weren't more of them, or it might have been a workout!" 

"A workout, huh?" Rena chuckled playfully as she patted Davian on the sholdier. 

"Ow! That hurts!" Davian winced, rubbing his sholdier. 

"Looks like it was a bit more than a workout, huh hon?" Rena said as she pulled out a potion. "You should be more carefull!" she scolded. "If that Bomb had self-destructed.....you might not have been so lucky....." 

Sara watched all this with an amused look on her face, but she knew where it was going. "Hey, Ramza... Maybe we should check the monsters for loot?" 

Ramza caught on quickly. "Sure, thats a good idea. We can buy some supplies in the next town and stop for a drink if we find any gil." 

Ramza and Sara walked over to the nearest Goblin's body and started to search him. Sara shivered and looked up quickly. She scanned the battlefield slowly for a second with a worried look on her face. 

"Something the matter, Sara?" Ramza asked when he noticed the concerned look Sara had.

"I don't know..." Sara said slowly. "Ramza, how many bodies do you see?" 

Ramza looked up and counted the bodies of the monsters. "Theres the Chocobo...and the two Black Goblins, right?" 

"Yeah, thats what I thought... three monsters...." 

Ramza's face flushed. "But....wasn't there....." 

"A Bomb too?" Sara finished. 

Ramza and Sara quickly looked over to where Davian and Rena were talking and shouted, "Get over here now!" 

Davian heard them and turned around to face Ramza. "What was that?" 

"Now! Get over here now!" Ramza yelled as Sara tried despetatly to make it to Davian and Rena. 

Ramza was the first to see the slight rustling of the bushes behind Rena. She heard the sounds of the bush and turned around slowly and saw a pair of glowing eyes stairing back at her. She backed up slowly and tapped Davian on the sholdier. 

"D-Davian...?" Rena said quietly. 

"Yeah?" Davian said as he turned around. He also saw the pairs of eyes. Thats when the creature decided to charge. "Get out of the way, Rena!" Davian shouted. He tossed her to the side just as the Bomb latched onto him with its two stubby arms. It grinned at Davian with a feral gleam in its eyes and started to glow a dull red. 

"Davian!" Rena screamed. she made an attempt to run to him, but Sara grabed her by the sholdiers and held her back. 

"Don't look..." Sara wispered. 

"Let me go, damnit!" Rena shouted. "Davian!" She tried to break away from Sara, but her training as an Archer had given her an incredibly powerful grip. 

"Hey, lemme go, yah damn firefly!!" Davian shouted as he tried vainly to break away from the Bomb's grasp. The creature just licked its jaws and closed it eyes as it prepaired to unleash its ultimate attack. 

Ramza had by this time made it to Sara's side and was prepairing to throw a large, fist-sized rock at the creature. He flung the stone through the air and it arched high to impact on the beasts head, inches away from Davian's face. All this did was further anger the Bomb, and it then releashed all the enery that it had been storing up to this point. Ramza, Sara, and Rena were hurled back several feet by the incredible explosion of the Bomb's self-destruct. The heat from the blast burned their backs and the stink of burnt fleash permented the air. After a second, Rena looked up to where Davian and the Bomb last were, only to find a large crater and the blasted remains of a tunic nearby. 

Rena stared openmouthed at the sight before her, unable to believe any of it. Getting to her feet shakely and using her staff as a prop, she walked over to the tunic and fell to her knees. Clutching the tunic to her chest, she began to weep quietly. She looked up into the approching darkness of night and asked God why He had taken her friend....why He had taken the dearest thing in this and all worlds to her. She looked down, a few drops of sorrow further staining her soiled cloaks. 

Ramza and Sara stood up and saw the horrible sight in front of them. Ramza also saw Rena and the condition she was in. He made a move to go to her, but Sara gently held his sholdier. He turned to look at her, and saw in her eyes what she didn't have the strength to say. He nodded his understanding and they turned and walked away, leaving Rena to her sorrow. 

~End Chapter One 

  
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Author's Notes: This is the first Chapter of a fic that I've been meaning to write for a while. I wanted a simi-realistic view on the world of Tactics and one that is more graphic or brutal, one more like the wars of real life, 'cept with Chocobos!

I'd just like to say arigato to Squaresoft for bringing such a great game to America. The Final Fantasy series is probably the greatest gaming series sence Mario Bros. and I hope that all the people who haven't embraced RPG's for all their glory yet may have the pleasure of experencing this gaming masterpiece.

NEW Author's Notes: Okay, keep in mind that I wrote this.. well, I think it was in 1998... so its not really up to par with the rest of my writing.. Chapter Two should be better though.. yeah, thats right.. I left off with Chapter One. *is lazy*


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